(Eagle News)—President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a measure that will grant protection to children in conflict areas.
Under RA 11188, the government is ordered to take all measures to prevent the “recruitment, re-recruitment, use, displacement of, or grave child rights violations against children involved in armed conflict.”
It also requires the government to provide special protection to children, called “zones of peace,” in “situations of armed conflict from all forms of abuse, violence, neglect, cruelty, discrimination and other conditions prejudicial to their development, taking into consideration their gender, cultural, ethnic and religious background.”
An inter-agency committee led by the Council for the Welfare of Children shall ensure the law’s implementation.
The committee’s members include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Commission on Human Rights, Departments of the Interior and Local Government, Health, Education, Justice, National Defense, Social Welfare and Development, local government units, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, the Office of Civil Defense, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Philippine Commission on Women, Philippine National Police, and two civil society organizations working in the same field.
The law shall take effect 15 days upon publication in the Official Gazette or a newspaper of national circulation.
